And I did not know but what the stingy old Bildad might have a mighty
deal to say about shipping hands, especially as I now found him on board
the Pequod, quite at home there in the cabin, and reading his Bible
as if at his own fireside. Now while Peleg was vainly trying to mend
a pen with his jack-knife, old Bildad, to my no small surprise,
considering that he was such an interested party in these proceedings;
Bildad never heeded us, but went on mumbling to himself out of his book,
"Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth-"
"Well, Captain Bildad," interrupted Peleg, "what d'ye say,
what lay shall we give this young man?"
"Thou knowest best," was the sepulchral reply, "the seven hundred
and seventy-seventh wouldn't be too much, would it?--'where moth
and rust do corrupt, but lay-'"
Lay, indeed, thought I, and such a lay! the seven hundred and
seventy-seventh! Well, old Bildad, you are determined that I, for one,
shall not lay up many lays here below, where moth and rust do corrupt.
It was an exceedingly long lay that, indeed; and though from the magnitude
of the figure it might at first deceive a landsman, yet the slightest
consideration will show that though seven hundred and seventy-seven
is a pretty large number, yet, when you come to make a teenth of it,
you will then see, I say, that the seven hundred and seventy-seventh part
of a farthing is a good deal less than seven hundred and seventy-seven
gold doubloons; and so I thought at the time.
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